Is Surface Pro 4 The One For You?

Tony Bradley
, ContributorI cover all things tech and the impact tech has on everyday life.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Microsoft has danced around the idea that a Surface Pro 4 tablet competes directly with Apple’s MacBook Air, but now the gloves are off. Microsoft launched a new online ad demonstrating features and capabilities of the Surface Pro 4 that the MacBook Air lacks.

There are a number of things that a Surface Pro 4 can do that a MacBook Air can’t. The keyboard cover can be detached, so the Surface Pro 4 can be used as a pure tablet. It can also be folded completely back so you can effectively use the Surface Pro 4 as a tablet even with the cover attached. Don’t try folding a MacBook Air backwards.

Most of the other features shown in the ad revolve around the fact that the Surface Pro 4 has a touchscreen display. You can tap, swipe, and pinch-to-zoom right on the display, which you can’t do on a MacBook Air. The Surface Pro 4 also comes with a Surface Pen so you can write notes, markup Web pages, or sketch original drawings on the display of the Microsoft tablet.

As the Microsoft ad points out, the Surface Pro 4 also has a camera that enables you to log in with Windows Hello just by looking at the display, and it is faster and lighter than its Apple counterpart. Of course, for most people the real difference comes down to Windows 10 vs. macOS, and people who either really dislike Windows or really love the Mac OS are unlikely to be swayed by feature comparisons.

The Microsoft ad comes out in the wake of Apple’s marketing efforts to pitch the iPad Pro as a PC replacement as both companies vie for those back-to-school laptop dollars. Ironically, the iPad Pro ad uses features like a keyboard that folds out of the way, or the ability to tap and swipe, or use a digital pen on the display as features that set it apart from a traditional PC.

Microsoft responded with a snarky ad pitting Cortana against Siri in a discussion of what exactly a computer is. Cortana asks if the iPad Pro has an Intel Core processor, or if it can run the full Microsoft Office rather than just the mobile app versions. Cortana also points out that real computers have trackpads and USB ports. Siri’s only response is “I just got a keyboard.”